Stop Fighting Your Sleep

Have you ever witnessed a baby “fighting sleep?” The child’s body is exhausted, mind in shambles, emotions erratically incomprehensible, yet they stand firm—“I am NOT tired, nor am I going to sleep!” It’s an obvious act of defiance in search of control. The baby is put to bed violently kicking and screaming to awaken with angel wings in the morning.

Here’s the reality…we are always that kicking, screaming child! Countless adults fight sleep on a daily basis, reporting that they are “Night Owls.” Okay…so you’re an animal? Is that your goal? Shouldn’t we embrace the Godly likeness we embody? I’ve never met a “night owl” that isn’t moody or extremely stressed out with early aging and most often suffering from chronic pain or disease. Fine, fine…if a night owl you must be, then at least take a nap! Know that you cannot continue to deny your body rest and obtain higher consciousness at the same time. Submit to your making. You are not the exception to the sleep rule, quit fighting it.

I’ve battled with sleep deprivation due to standing figures at my bedside, irrational thoughts of the death of my loved ones, over thinking a situation, or replaying events over and over in my head. In the past, I have gotten as few as 3 hours of sleep on a nightly basis. My body would not relinquish control, and I would fruitlessly continue to try to solve problems. We all know nothing good happens after midnight anyway! Allow God to naturally provide your healing and refreshment through sleep. Give God your nightly “issues” and know that He and the angles will take care of everything you need while you rest. Once I embraced this, I now sleep like a baby and can nap like a champ.

Here are my top tips to get more sleep at night:

Pray and set boundaries: Some people are extremely sensitive to energy. The energetic presence of our guardian angels, God, and other spirit guardians can overwhelm the mind with an endless to-do list of ways to help others or genius solutions to the world’s problems. Remember that you can pray and set boundaries. A prayer I have used frequently is this “Heavenly Father, thank you for your presence in my life. Thank you for sending guardians that tirelessly and lovingly protect and guide me. Thank you for providing me with easy sleep and vivid dreams so I can receive Spirit’s messages in a rested state. Thank you for giving me signs during normal waking hours.” It is also important to energetically shed the waste you have accumulated throughout the day. I will use this prayer “Thank you for every person you have placed in my life and path today. Please cleanse me of all energy or presence that does not walk in your pure, white light.”

Journal: Keep a journal beside the bed to jot down anything that you want to remember in the morning. DO NOT use your phone or turn on bright lights to do this as this interrupts the rhythm of the night.

Turn ALL lights off: No lights in the room AT ALL. Our brain and body physiologically perceive light as daytime, which means wakey wakey! If you have to turn on lights to get to the bathroom, make them very minimal and very dim. Never turn on a full, bright light.

Eye mask: A blackout eye mask saved my life when my children were infants and while I was in graduate school. The mask instantly blacks out every visual disturbance and prevents you from glancing at the clock.

Electrical tape over flashing lights: Put electrical tape over the flashing lights of the cable box or any other electronic device that is charging.

Put the iPhone face down and on silent: Through the night our phone receives constant updates, emails, and messages that create illumination in the darkness. By keeping it face down, the night’s darkness and rhythm will not be interrupted. Also, think about turning your alarm clock backward because the light from the alarm gets your brain buzzing about the next day’s activities.

White sound: Use a small fan, sound machine, or YouTube sleep music. Do not use anything upbeat or with an abrupt sound, this will make your dreams fanatic and interrupt your fall into sleep. The sound should be as neutral as possible like the drone of the ocean, or light instrumental music.

Relax your jaw: A clenched jaw activates the mind and prepares the body to react. Do a body scan and relax all tight muscles including the jaw. A clenched jaw is clinically correlated with insomnia, see the related article from the journal Head & Face Medicine http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1746-160X-4-4.

Do not exercise right before bed: Exercise right before bed elevates the heart and energizes the body—the exact opposite effect we desire before bed! Do not perform exercise approximately 2 hours before bed. Read more from Harvard Medical School here http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/22/health/upwave-night-exercise/.

Get out in the sun: God did not make humans to allow them to sit in an artificially lit box all day (i.e home or office building). Our biological clocks are programmed by exposure to the sun. The sun signals our body to release hormones that programs the brain to a day time-night time sleep cycle. Sun exposure prepares the brain for night time sleep.

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Amanda Schmidt and www.AlternativePTFortWorth.com, 2015-2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Amanda Schmidt and www.AlternativePTFortWorth.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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